The availability and consumption of digital video content continues to increase as the prevalence of smartphones and other devices capable of displaying digital video increases. With the increased consumption of digital video content comes more opportunities for advertisers to promote their brands or products. Specifically, users can use their devices to download and/or stream movies, television shows, user-generated videos, or other types of digital video content. By leveraging the many different types of video content available, advertisers or other entities can promote brand awareness to large numbers of people.
Many advertisements, however, are disruptive and interrupt the experience of the user. For example, conventional advertising systems that provide targeted advertising to viewers of a digital video typically interrupt the video to provide a commercial, popup advertisement, or overlay on top of a digital video player that includes content related to the viewers' interests. Interrupting a video to provide an advertisement, not only interrupts the video but also effectively lengthens the time required to view the video. Because conventional advertising systems interrupt the viewing experience, viewers can have a negative reaction to the advertisements, particularly as viewers become more accustomed to watching digital video without advertising breaks (e.g., due to digital video recording capabilities and digital video subscriptions).
To provide advertisements without interrupting the experience of the user, many advertisers use product placement or background advertising in videos. For example, instead of stopping a video to display an advertisement, some video advertising methods use product placement to insert products into a video in a way that highlights the product to the user. Examples of the foregoing include having an actor drive a particular brand of car, having an actor wear particular articles of clothing, placing objects within scenes to be included in the video, etc.
One will appreciate that this type of product placement/advertising requires that the products/advertisements are included within a scene to be captured in the video prior to the filming of the video. Accordingly, the advertisements are the same for everyone viewing the digital video. Furthermore, the advertisements or products placed cannot be changed after the video is produced. Thus, such advertisements are often out of date or not relevant to the audience or viewer of the video. Moreover, such advertising is static with no immediate conversion possible. These and other disadvantages may exist with respect to conventional advertising techniques in connection with digital videos.